With an eye for beauty & a lust for meaning, Samantha Grant is an award-winning filmmaker, artist, journalist, and educator who harnesses the power of potent storytelling to inspire change on a broad scale by moving people, emotionally and intellectually, into new ways of thinking. By presenting beautifully crafted stories in collaboration with an international network of students Sam herself trained in 15 years of teaching at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism & Stanford’s Knight Fellowship, Sam’s work reaches millions worldwide, addressing topics like media ethics, global public health, religious cults, politics, education, and human rights, all from a female perspective. Sam’s work has been featured on PBS, ABC, CNN, NPR, MTV, Variety, A&E, History Channel, FRONTLINE, and more. Most recently, Sam co-founded Moving People Media, a storytelling nonprofit committed to inspiring people to see the humanity in one another through bold, beautiful storytelling, and to behave accordingly.

I make work that comes from the heart, and goes for the gut.

Shane has years of production management experience across film and television, and was part of the series and development teams at MTV, VH1 and VICELAND/VICE TV, and was the Head of Production at Story Syndicate, where he oversaw documentary features and series for Netflix, HBO, Apple, Hulu, FX, and NatGeo. He is currently the Head of Production at Candle True Stories, and is currently producing two independent documentary features.

Amina Bayou produced Austrian director, Friedrich Moser’s, How to Build a Truth Engine, which premiered at SXSW in 2024 and is executive produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov. Amina is currently producing Academy Award© nominated filmmaker, Judith Ehrlich’s, The Mouse That Roared. As a producer of non-fiction films, now based in France and California, Amina produces films covering topics such as whistleblowing in a digital era, war resistance, information warfare, press freedom, and democratic backsliding.

John Yaworsky is an award-winning creative producer director with 20 years of
traditional and new media production experience on feature films, commercials,
online education, corporate communications and documentaries.

George W. Myers is one of the seven members of the founding collective of Visions Video. Currently an award-winning film programmer at Amherst Cinema including the Bellwether series he co-curates with Visions Video advisory board member Luke Meyer. He's worked at or been involved with numerous film festivals including Camden International Film Fest, Oak Cliff, Provincetown, Denver and Sundance. He was a producer and distributor for the film Milford Graves Full Mantis and has a long history working in music and the arts in Western Mass. He is also co-owner of The Quarters a restaurant, bar and vintage arcade in Hadley, MA.